Anonymous Attacks IFPI After The Pirate Bay Loses Appeal

Over the weekend, Anonymous launched a coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) website, in light of The Pirate Bay losing its appeal.

The appeal's verdict was announced on Friday, with the site's founders having their prison sentences reduced, but the fine increased from 32 to 46 million kronor ($6.5 million).

Following the verdict IFPI CEO Frances Moore told The Register that "Today's judgment confirms the illegality of The Pirate Bay and the seriousness of the crimes of those involved."

More importantly, she called for governments and ISPs to take action and close down the world's most popular torrent website once and for all.

This is something that the infamous Anonymous hacktivist group, which is already engaged in a DDoS campaign against the entertainment industry and anti-piracy groups, did not take very well.

The group immediately made the IFPI website its new target and the Warner Bros. one soon followed. An official statement was also posted on the group's Operation Payback website.

"Warner Bros, MGM, Universal, and Sony are among the largest organizations represented by the IFPI. These organizations have levied 6.5 million dollars in damages against innocent people.

"In response, we will cause equivalent losses in downtime, corrupt data and focused disruption of the distribution of their media," Anonymous warned.

The group claims to be fighting for freedom of information, copyright reform and a free Internet. It's Operation Payback DDoS campaign has been running for over two months, during which time many websites were attacked.

At the beginning of last week, the Pirate Parties in UK and US released a joint statement in which they asked Anonymous to halt the attacks and channel their resources towards legal ways of protesting.

The group refused and said that it prefers fighting the battle in this way. The FBI is already looking into the attacks.